Quick Rant: Why is it that contemporary furniture is so expensive? I mean its made of same/simlar wood/metal. The only thing is that the cloth/leather might be more expensive but it shouldn't be 5-10 times more expensive!

Wife and I went shoping for furniture to "update" our formal living area. I don't know why it needs updating but thats another issue. We look around at a few shops in Dallas last wknd. The only place she really like the furniture was at cantoni's. Their prices are crazy. This the kind of place where the sales people are all dressed up like they work in Europe. They offer you drinks etc. I was like - OH SNAP! this is going to be $$. I told her lets try to just look at chairs today. She found a pair that she liked. I looked at the price and almost passed out. The salesman saw the shock in my face and quickly said - we have a 20% off sale going on and since its president's day wknd - you get the sales tax off.

We ended up getting a pair of these:

http://www.cantoni.com/MIA-LEFT-ARM-...IR-p/53647.htm

 

I feel your pain. We did our place in contemp stuff and it's way overpriced. I did find a couple lower price places online, you might give them a shot:
eurway.com
chiasso.com

But I agree, it's the same schit, just in cooler shapes and 5 times the cost.

 

some of the stuff at cantoni isn't expensive at all.....

4K for a highest grade leather couch is NOT expensive.

 

Sometimes its innovation..others not. Charles & Ray eames for example revolutionized the way wood is bent and shaped. Amazing stuff.

Even though I can appreciate this stuff, I'd only pay for it if I'm rich. All my stuff is currently from IKEA.

 

That's a really good reason to go with classic styling and decor.

My wife and I bought our bedroom suite (Kincaid, all solid wood) for about 25% of retail value when the "expensive" furniture store here shut down. The salesman was like "Just give me a number, any number, and I'll go ask the manager". We did, he did, they took it (after a $50 upward price adjustment).





Whenever we buy furniture, we always negotiate. Markup on furniture is ridiculous and most places will deal, especially if you're talking $1500+ and will buy it right then and there.

We actually had planned on going with an Amish-built dining room table from a place in Houston (you can custom order colors, wood, size, etc, etc, and it's SUPER well built) but we've found a set locally that we can get for about 20% of original asking price that is of comparable quality.

My wife likes to have nice furniture but she'll never pay anywhere close to sticker price on it. I always cringe because she just walks up the salesman, offers them a price, and then walks away if they can't do it. Cracks me up, once I've gotten over my embarrassment, and it saves us a ton of money.

 

Happy 5th s2ki birthday MDXLuvr

 

it's probably Mennonite built and not Amish built.

Amish people won't build furniture for a store because they totally isolate themselves. Mennonites at least tolerate the outside world. Most people think the two are the same and in most respects they are.

 

Wow I didn't even realize that.

Thanks Raj.

 

The Amish Shoppe....with Mennonite furniture? Don't think so.

They still have to interact with people on the outside and they have select people that do the interaction for them.

Furthermore, some of them have branched off and started their own businesses and interests. You don't have to live on/by an ordnung to be Amish and know their tradecraft and not all ordnungs are nearly as strict as you might believe. I know a girl that lived in Amish country and believe me, many of them do indeed interact and conduct commerce with the outside world.

 

I used to live in Indiana, Amish do sell their own stuff.